A customer data integration (CDI) system generally consists of a set of programs, databases, and business processes for generating a complete and accurate data view of the customers of a business. For example, a CDI system may obtain customer records from various “source” databases within a business. The source customer records (“source records”) are consolidated by the CDI system. Thus, the CDI system may identify groups of similar or identical source records that are duplicate or redundant. For each of these groups of records, the CDI system may generate a consolidated customer record (“consolidated record”) by merging the source records. The CDI system may also record which source records were merged to generate the consolidated record. For source records that are dissimilar to all other source records (i.e., for which there is no duplicate or redundant source record), the CDI system still generates a corresponding consolidated record. Thus, an output of a CDI system constitutes an authoritative list of customers (i.e., the consolidated records) and the corresponding source records.
These consolidated records may enable a business to provide higher quality customer service and to gain insights about its customers. For example, the records of a CDI system may be utilized by customer relationship management (CRM) applications and analytic reporting systems.
The consolidated records generated by a CDI system may be stored in a database, wherein each consolidated record is assigned a unique identifier (e.g., a “key”). Other systems may then access the consolidated records, and may, for example, link auxiliary data to the consolidated records, using the unique identifier as a “foreign key” reference.
In order to maintain integrity of the CDI system, the source databases may be scanned periodically for changes, and the CDI system updated accordingly. During update, care should be exercised to ensure that the keys for consolidated records are not unnecessarily modified, because systems that utilize the consolidated records may have linked auxiliary data to those records.
Problem may arise, however, when the source records in the CDI system need to be reconsolidated from scratch. For example, if one or more rules for identifying similar or identical records changes, or if a structural representation of customers or other entities represented by the source databases is significantly revised, then the existing consolidated records may no longer be valid and the source records may need to be reconsolidated. However, this may be disruptive to systems that have already utilized the consolidated records, for example, because the linkages from the auxiliary data to the keys may be invalid.